Blankenship, a right-wing activist millionaire who sits on the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association, used his company’s ties to the industry-dominated Bush administration to paper over Massey’s egregious environmental, health, and safety violations. Massey rewarded Republicans with massive donations after the company avoided paying billions in fines for a 2000 coal slurry disaster in Martin County, three times bigger than the Exxon Valdez. After both mine inspectors and Massey employees got the same message that it was more important to “run coal” than to follow safety rules, a deadly fire broke out in the Aracoma Alma mine in 2006, burning two men alive.

“Those miners died because Massey Energy cares more about a lump of coal than human lives,” United Mine Workers President Richard Trumka said. “There ought to be a ”http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_676153.html">special place in hell for people like Don Blankenship and the corporate bottom-feeders of our world. And I’ll tell you, I’d volunteer to mine the coal to make the fire hotter."